


dreaming too big

by la_victorienne



Category: Alice (TV 2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-11
Updated: 2009-12-11
Packaged: 2018-10-15 10:50:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10555080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_victorienne/pseuds/la_victorienne
Summary: she doesn't have the best track record with guys.





	

When Alice was fourteen, she met Gerry Cartwright behind the high school bleachers and kissed him square on the mouth before he could say no. He was sixteen and third string on the high school football team, and he'd always been a little on the scrawny side, but Alice didn't care because she was tired of being different from all the other girls, and if she were going to kiss somebody it might as well be him. He'd pushed her back and she punched him in the gut, for the first time discovering that what she really wanted was the power of making a man weak in the knees, whether from a kiss or a kick to the balls. She enrolled in her first jujitsu class the next week, and even though she was always different from all the other girls, nobody seemed prepared to call her out on it. She decided she liked being different, and she's been "different" ever since.

When she was sixteen, she tried heavy eyeliner and black fingernail polish, and spent very little time actually speaking to her mother. Senior Will Davis liked her studded belts and ratty Converse All-Stars, and the way she could throw him over her shoulder in less than twenty seconds. What he didn't like, of course, was that when he tried to unhook her bra so he could tell all of his guitar-playing pot buddies he'd hit second base with a sophomore she bent his arm behind his back and held it there until he apologized, nor that the next day her dark eyes were gone and so were her Doc Martens. Her mom, bless her, never said a thing about the makeup or Will Davis, just bought a quart of chocolate chip ice cream and put on _Casablanca_ , so Alice would know she wasn't alone.

At eighteen, it wasn't anyone in particular, but an ever-ending queue of suitors, none of whom measured up to Alice's standards. Always, he was either too smart or not nearly witty enough, or he was intimidated by her black belt, or he thought he could take her on, or he wanted to help her find her father, or he didn't. She hadn't known she was looking for Jack until he found her, tall and casual and perfect. But he wasn't perfect after all, was he? It took longer this time, but he was just too good to be true. She added 'flaws' to her list of requirements, 'but not too many.'

She guesses she's so used to things turning out wrong that she doesn't know why she thinks this – her, and Hatter, especially here – will turn out right. It's enough to send the sanest head spinning, so she sets Hatter up in Jack's old apartment and walks away, almost before he can kiss her goodbye. "Goodnight," she says. "Until tomorrow," she doesn't say. She suspects that, in the uncanny way he has, he already knows why she's not staying, and it only makes her like him more – which, in turn, sends her head spinning faster.

"Oy," he calls, and she turns around, just out of arms' reach. "I'll be here," he says.

Alice smiles. "I know." After all, he did put his hat on the rack when he opened the door. She leans in for one last kiss and very nearly abandons her plans, but it's Hatter, this time, pushing away.

"I'll be here," he repeats.  
  
As for Alice, well. She puts _Casablanca_ on as soon as she gets home, and Carol doesn't ask any of the questions she's been thinking, just pulls out the chocolate chip ice cream and two spoons. And if Carol takes to "David" like a duck to water when he visits the next day, it's hardly because she believes he's going to change Alice's Humphrey Bogart streak. No, it's not that at all. 


End file.
